Devils on the Doorstep

2000. China. Directed by Jiang Wen. Screenplay by You Fengwei, Shi Jianquan, Shu Ping, Jiang Wen. With Jiang Wen, Jiang Hongbo, Kagawa Teruyuki, Yuan Ding. To the average Chinese peasant, foreigners have long been “devils”—potentially dangerous outsiders who arrive with dubious motives and nefarious intent. That was especially true of the Japanese soldiers who invaded China in the 1930s. Despite having to give a percentage of the grain harvest to the Japanese, Ma Dasan and his neighbors in a small northern Chinese village coexist with them peacefully—until the night two prisoners are dumped on Ma Dasan’s doorstep, one a Japanese soldier, the other a Chinese collaborator. Director Jiang Wen, the most famous actor of his generation thanks to the TV series A Beijinger in New York, brings great emotional weight to the role of Ma Dasan. Courtesy Fortissimo Films. In Mandarin, Japanese; English subtitles. 140 min.

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